It's amazing how much is invisible to the unaided eye, just waiting for us to discover. Here are two objects catalogued by Charles Messier as M97 and M108, which would never be seen without a telescope. M97 is also called the Owl Nebula and is a beautiful planetary nebula. M108 is a spiral galaxy. They both lie in an area rich with faint objects; most of them would have been too faint for Messier to see with his small telescope.
I processed this image while I was on the plane last week to North Carolina. I cannot seem to access my website for posting things right now so I can't provide a link to a larger version, hopefully I can edit that in later.
Last night, a bunch of TAAA members including myself made a trek to a dark sky site that we are evaluating as a possible club-owned site. It was really an excellent night, warm and calm, and most importantly, very very dark. There was no significant light glow and after the moon set the Milky Way was simply awesome. Dark knots, arms, and it went from horizon to horizon. Objects like M13 and M31 were easily naked-eye visible. I had the refractor set up and spent most of the night working on the Veil nebula. Will report more about that trip later.
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